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Cyborg 009: Conclusion GOD'S WAR (2012 Manga)
Cyborg 009: Conclusion GOD'S WAR is a 5 volume manga that was drafted by the late Shotaro Ishinomori. It was intended as the final story for Cyborg 009, and serves as an updating of two unfinished attempts at a finale; The "Angel" arc, and the "Battle with the Gods" arc. It is one of the final works of the cartoonist, with him having started to write out the outline before his tragic death from heart disease in January 1998. Before his death, Ishinomori had stated his intent for the manga to resume in the year 2000 with this arc. In 2012, 14 years after Ishinomori's death, the story was finally published in manga format by his son, Joe Onodera. Onodera outlined the story based on conceptual drawings and notes that his father had left behind. Masato Hayase, a former assistant of Ishinomori, illustrated the artwork for the first nine chapters, but was then replaced by Sugar Sato (another assistant) for the remainder of the story. The manga version of GOD'S WAR ''ran from April 2012 to February 2014, and was available for free reading on Shogakukan's Club Sunday'' website until each volume was released. Development History Although The Underground Empire of Yomi was originally to be the final arc of Cyborg 009, fan revolt and emotional letters sent to Shotaro Ishinomori had convinced him to resume the manga soon enough. However, he had in mind a new idea for a way to wrap up the series, plotting out a long and dramatic final battle for the nine cyborgs. This arc, stated to be the "last Cyborg 009 story", was the Angel arc. It was serialized in Adventure King magazine from February 1969 to June 1969, but ended off on an abrupt cliffhanger as Ishinomori soon encountered writer's block and had trouble with editorial. Months later, in October 1969, Ishinomori resumed the story in'' COM magazine, under the title 'Battle with the Gods, but it also ended on a cliffhanger in December 1970, in light of fan complaints and more difficulty in finishing the arc. Ishinomori then opted to put a hold on ending the manga, instead focusing on writing shorter stories and different arcs, but stated that his lifelong dream would be to resume the final story and bring the manga to a conclusion "that must be achieved at any cost". In late 1997, Ishinomori began drafting a third concept for the final story, titling it ''"2012 009 Conclusion: GOD'S WAR". He envisioned the story as being published as both a light novel and a ten-volume manga compilation, and had hoped to publish both versions by the year 2000. Even while ill, he insisted upon drafting out a manuscript and various concept notes for the arc, but passed away before he could further revise the material and fully finalize the plot. Furthermore, the ''Comic Alpha magazine that he intended for the "GOD'S WAR" manga to eventually be serialized in also went defunct, making one wish in his will to be an impossibility. Joe Onodera, the son of Ishinomori, eventually opted to complete his father's work, as he had remembered having the plot detailed to him and had his father's notes and manuscript to work from. However, due to the varying stages of completion for each chapter and the details for battles and plot elements being rather vague, Onodera had to write new material for some stages of the plot (in particular, 007's chapter only had its title written and did not have any plot notes). This is what lead to the long delay in completing the story as both a novel and manga, with there being an extended hiatus between the release of the first light novel for "GOD'S WAR" and the second and third volumes, which were released before the manga commenced. Prior to the release of Onodera's novels and manga, the 2001 anime of Cyborg 009 attempted to loosely adapt the prologue and other parts of "GOD'S WAR" as a 3-episode mini arc and OVA. However, the OVA differs greatly and ends off on a cliffhanger, suggesting that there was later reconsideration of how to adapt Ishinomori's notes as well as a hesitance from the anime staff to bring the incomplete story to any outright conclusion. Controversy Both manga and light novel encountered controversy from the Cyborg 009 fandom in Japan and overseas, as Joe Onodera had punched up the manuscript to make several dramatic moments have heavy elements of gore and sexual content. Shotaro Ishinomori himself had previously received controversy over the sex sequence between 009 and 003 in "Battle with the Gods", which was part of what lead to the story being incomplete. The manga version, while still controversial for its violent content, is somewhat toned down from the light novel's descriptions of the gory elements. In particular, some of the death sequences in the final battle wound up softened in the manga. The light novel adaptation also used a framing device in each volume that chronicled Ishinomori's failing health as he struggled to figure out a way to end the manga, culminating in him passing away in the prologue to the third and final volume. Story November 1997: Shotaro Ishinomori had somehow been contacted by Cyborg 001 in his sleep. 001 urges him to complete the final story of him and his comrades, as he is on his last days of life. While at first dumbfounded, Ishinomori decides to do so. He is then contacted by Professor Gilmore, who has been sent back in time from the year 2012. Professor Gilmore informs Ishinomori that his cyborg creations are in fact real people that exist in the 21st century, and that the manga he wrote was based off of telepathic suggestions sent back from 001. However, 001 has recently foreseen the end of the world, and Gilmore vaguely urges Ishinomori to come up with a "happy ending" to their struggle. He departs, and Ishinomori has now figured out the title to his tale: "2012 009 Conclusion: GOD'S WAR". It is revealed that after the cyborgs had finished the fight against their enemies, they had gone their separate ways and spent time in their home countries trying to live their lives. However, strange occurrences happen around them and they are each forced to take action, while unlocking new abilities along the way. The cyborgs are eventually reunited when threats start to climax. The Attack on Tokyo Cyborgs 002 through 009 soon wind up having to defend Tokyo from an attack by demons, as it winds up flooded from a tsunami. However, the team is quickly overwhelmed by the different threats and defeated, with several of them winding up mutilated: * 002 is bisected by a mutant alligator, causing him to lose his entire lower half. * 003 has her eyes ripped from her skull by a pack of oni, and also loses her right arm. * 004 has both his arms torn off, as well as experiencing a severed leg and a missing foot. * 005 winds up with his skin shredded up. * 009 has his left arm ripped off. 001 soon manages to intervene and teleport the rest of the team away, in order for Gilmore to work on saving their lives and giving them new upgrades. Although most of the affected team members adjust to their replacement parts, 003 falls into despair at her new robotic eyes. The Gods' Mental Attack Months after the disaster, the cyborgs have attempted to move on but soon wind up trying to either commit suicide or kill others, as they've become tempted by the darkness in their hearts. 001 intervenes in teleporting each team member off, and reminds them of their true purpose. 001 manages to unlock the hidden psychic abilities in his teammates, causing them to gain teleportation and telepathy in order to fight back against the Gods. With the team unified, they plan to fight the Gods, but Dr. Gilmore soon goes missing and 008 appears to betray the team in order to side with the Gods. 002, 004, 005, 006, 007, and 009 go off to the final battlefield, leaving 003 and 001 behind. When they get to the battlefield, they find that it's filled with various depictions of Gods and mythical creatures, with 008 visible amongst the horde. The Final Stand The 00 cyborgs attempt to fight off the Gods, but suffer their first casualty- via 006 exploding due to Shiva making him forcibly ingest parasitic snakes through all of his orifices. The team then winds up having to battle Odin, who steps on 004 and winds up crippling him below the waist. 004 then opts to sacrifice himself, convincing 007 to fly him away to a secluded location so he can detonate his atomic bomb against another horde of creatures. The remaining team members are left even more horrified, screaming his name. After the sacrifice, 008 then reveals that he was only acting with his betrayal, and decides to teleport himself out into space with a horde of the Gods and demons in an attempt to stave them off. 002 flies up into space after him and pleas for him to reconsider, but 008 uses his pressure manipulation ability to cause a massive explosion in space, taking himself and the horde out. 009 manages to rescue 002. The remaining four team members wind up finding Dr. Gilmore, and find themselves having to face off against giant versions of Jesus and Buddha. The battle quickly becomes impossible to win as both Gods brutally maim 007, 005, and 002, before killing each of them off, as well as killing off Dr. Gilmore. The mysterious "God of Gods" then appears, and makes the other two apparent deities vanish. 009 winds up meeting back up with 001 and 003, and learns that they can either attempt to fight back against the ultimate God, "The Child of Darkness", or they can sacrifice themselves as "The Child of Light" had done long ago. 001 explains that the current planet they know as "Earth" is an imperfect and corrupt copy of a world that once existed in another universe. An entity of light and an entity of darkness wound up doing battle over their world, being unable to share it, and "The Child of Light" committed "spiritual suicide" in an attempt to save it. The world then shifted universes due to its corruption, and its inhabitants came to have two souls: one of light, one of darkness. When a being dies, the purified soul would return to its rightful universe while the darkness will remain lingering through space-time as a corrupted spirit. The "Gods" that the team have fought against are in fact such demons that have taken on the imagery. In the end, the three opt for sacrificing themselves to win against the Gods. 001 vanishes first, while 009 and 003 share their last moments on the corrupted Earth. After asking 003 what she'd like to be in the event that they're reincarnated, 003 answers that she'd wish to be his bride. The two embrace, and let themselves pass away on their own terms. Epilogue In the year 201x, a peaceful planet can be witnessed in full color. Shotaro Ishinomori and Dr. Gilmore sit by a beach near Tokyo, the former drawing a sketch of the latter in his notebook. 002, 004, 005, 006, 007, and 008 are seen enjoying a day at the beach. However, they now appear to be fully human. They then see 009 and 003 arrive, and rush towards them in excitement. The final page shows a glowing fetus, the "Child of Light", at rest. Characters As Ishinomori came up with the idea to have the cyborgs' origins modernized for the 21st century and these versions are stated to be the "real" characters that the original manga continuity was based off of, some details may differ from what readers know from the earlier manga. Ishinomori's concept notes also state that their names and numbers from the earlier manga continuity do not actually apply to these characters, but that those "pseudonyms" would still be used in the story for convenience. *001/Ivan Whisky: A Russian infant who was forcibly converted into a cyborg at the hands of his father, a scientist who participated in the C.A.P. (Cyborg Astronaut Project) with Black Ghost. This surgery gifted him with a genius intellect and supernatural powers. After the cyborgs' battles were over, he went to live with Gilmore. In the prologue of the manga, he reveals to Ishinomori that his real name is not "Ivan Whisky", but "Ivan Torsky", and that the other cyborgs' actual names also differ from what he wrote in his manga. *002/Jet Link: An American and former delinquent that was given the ability to fly. After the cyborgs defeated Black Ghost and their other enemies, he became a private detective in New York City, but wound up having to come out of retirement in the wake of the new threat. *003/Francoise Arnoul: A French ballerina who was given enhanced vision and hearing. She returned to her ballet career when she retired from the team, and intentionally avoided contact with the other cyborgs in order to start anew. However, this plan did not last long, as she wound up experiencing a supernatural incident in Paris. *004/Albert Heinrich: A German truck driver who accepted a ride to a job interview from undercover Black Ghost agents, taking his fiancee Hilda with him. However, after learning that they intended to use him as a subject for human experimentation, the two lovers attempted to escape. Hilda was shot dead, and the Black Ghost agents converted Albert into a living weapon arsenal. After the cyborgs went their separate ways, Albert returned to his truck driving job but wound up involved in an incident after coming across a woman who reminded him of his deceased fiancee. In the "God's War" continuity, both of Albert's hands were modified to fire bullets. *005/Geronimo Junior: A Native American man who lived on a reservation in Arizona. He wound up abducted from his gas station job by Black Ghost agents, and was given superhuman strength and invulnerability. When the team split up, he became a law enforcement official in the Amazon rainforest in an attempt to protect the wildlife there. However, he too wound up called back into action after experiencing a strange occurrence while pursuing a group of poachers. *006/Chang Changku: An impoverished Chinese man who stowed away in a ship to Japan, but wound up having to be rescued by Black Ghost agents after the ship sunk. He was converted into a fire-breathing cyborg for the purposes of melting rock and exploiting the planet's resources. He went back to being a chef after retiring from the team, but wound up experiencing an unusual incident after a man asked him to find a food that would give immortality. *007/Great Britain: A British stage actor who turned to alcohol after his talent faded. He was abducted from a bar, and subjected to repeated experiments that altered his cellular structure and gave him the ability of shapeshifting. After his retirement from the 00 cyborg team, he attempted to return to stage acting, but all his fellow performers mysteriously went missing in an incident. *008/Pyunma: An African man who was altered to work in oxygen-free environments, particularly the deep sea. After his retirement from the team, he was asked to research the Bermuda sea but wound up experiencing a strange phenomenon. *009/Joe Shimamura: A delinquent of half-Japanese heritage, abducted after he escaped a juvenile detention center. He was given the ability of acceleration. After the battles ended, he became an archaeology assistant at a Japanese university. After a Moai statue was found in Okinawa, he was given the order to go to Easter Island to investigate. However, he then wound up experiencing a strange incident in Japan. *Dr. Isaac Gilmore: A scientist who defected from Black Ghost's C.A.P., after knowing that Black Ghost intended to use the nine cyborgs as weapons in a war. He oversaw their battles, and opted to raise Ivan after the team retired. However, after Ivan informed him of his visions of the apocalypse, Gilmore was briefly teleported to an alternate universe in the year 1997, and opted to tell Ishinomori of the coming event. Chapters #Prologue: Cyborg 001: The Fluttering of Angels' Wings #Cyborg 002: The Bottom of the Skyscraper (Part 1) #Cyborg 002: The Bottom of the Skyscraper (Part 2) #Cyborg 003: The Impossible Force (Part 1) #Cyborg 003: The Impossible Force (Part 2) #Cyborg 004: The Fairy Road (Part 1) #Cyborg 004: The Fairy Road (Part 2) #Cyborg 005: Gaia's Capital (Part 1) #Cyborg 005: Gaia's Capital (Part 2) #Cyborg 006: The Food of Heaven (Part 1) #Cyborg 006: The Food of Heaven (Part 2) #Cyborg 007: Phantom Theater (Part 1) #Cyborg 007: Phantom Theater (Part 2) #Cyborg 008: The Deep Sea Pyramid (Part 1) #Cyborg 008: The Deep Sea Pyramid (Part 2) #Cyborg 009: The Conspiracy of the Goddess (Part 1) #Cyborg 009: The Conspiracy of the Goddess (Part 2) #Cyborg 009: The Conspiracy of the Goddess (Part 3) #The Final Chapter: Call of the Soldiers #The Final Chapter: The Massive Tokyo Earthquake #The Final Chapter: The Devil, the Sea, and the Sky #The Final Chapter: Defeat of the Cyborg Soldiers #The Final Chapter: The Shinjuku Stronghold #The Final Chapter: Destruction of the Stronghold #The Final Chapter: The Gods' Trap #The Final Chapter: Awakening #The Final Chapter: The Factory of Gods #The Final Chapter: The Gods, Gathered #The Final Chapter: God of Gods #The Final Chapter: The Two Universes Collected Volumes *'''Volume 1 (October 18, 2012, ISBN 978-4-09-124081-1): Reprints chapters 1-5. *'Volume 2' (May 17, 2013, ISBN 978-4-09-124336-2): Reprints chapters 6-11. *'Volume 3' (October 18, 2013, ISBN 978-4-09-124528-1): Reprints chapters 12-18. *'Volume 4' (January 17, 2014, ISBN 978-4-09-124599-1 ): Reprints chapters 19-24. *'Volume 5' (April 18, 2014, ISBN 978-4-09-124689-9): Reprints chapters 25-30. Trivia *A major difference between the adaptations of "GOD'S WAR" is that Ishinomori is only contacted by Professor Gilmore in the OVA and light novel. In the manga version, Cyborg 001 briefly contacts him first before Gilmore arrives. The OVA also takes cues from the "Angel" and "Battle with the Gods" prototype stories, with 001 being the one to upgrade his team members, as well as the team being shown the darkness in their hearts from an angel's brainwashing. *The OVA version of the arc also had Hisui Kagariya/Queen Himiko set up to be the ultimate adversary that the team had to battle against, while the novel and manga show there to be multiple gods. *On the cover of the first volume, 008 has his black face appearance, yet in the manga he sports his more modern design- save for an art mistake by Masato Hayase in 004's chapter. A conceptual piece of artwork by Ishinomori depicted 008 in an updated design that appeared to be based off of his look in "Legend of the Super Galaxy". However, other than the promotional artworks that depict him in the original black face design, Hayase and Sato's rendition of 008 is that of the 2001 incarnation (where he has blond hair). *Among the differences between Onodera's light novel and manga, the most notable change involves the final scene. In the light novel, 001 is depicted with the rest of the team at the beach, being held by 003. In the manga, he is entirely absent from the sequence, which lead to confusion about his fate. *In Ishinomori's original concept art, he drew himself as a bald elderly man, as he had envisioned himself as living longer and into the new millenium. The manga and anime depict Ishinomori as he looked before his death. Due to his death, the subplot of the light novel and manga that focused on him had to also be overhauled. *Before Onodera adapted the concept notes for "GOD'S WAR", the concept was loosely re-purposed for the series Kamen Rider Agito. *While Joe was 18 in the original manga, the concept notes describe him as being 21 years old. His hair color was also listed as "blond" in one draft, while another retained him having "chestnut" colored hair. References * Cyborg 009 Volumes 11 and 12, Shotaro World anthology collection (Media Factory) * Cyborg 009: The Complete Book (Media Factory, 2001) * Skull Man Volume 1 (Media Factory) * ETV Special Feature: "Shotaro Ishinomori: The Man Who Made Cyborg 009" (NHK Educational TV) External links *http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_009_conclusion_GOD%27S_WAR *http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-08-04/cyborg-009-finale-manga-last-arc-begins *http://club.shogakukan.co.jp/book/detail-book/book_group_id/16/ *http://www.orendsrange.com/2014/01/cyborg-009-finale-manga-ends-in-5th.html Category:Comics/Manga